"...Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric...Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate...shes used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house in the neighborhood of Hampden, and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away..."

Sure, that's always a problem ~ so is the cost of auditing ~ and it's a very real cost. Turning these people lose to buy costly beef or less costly salmon is a risk we take ~ we went through this over lobster a month ago ~ lobster's market was tanking and there was a surplus catch.

Capitalist theory said the price should drop. You wouldn't believe how many Freepers refused to believe a price could ever come down due to oversupply and competition.

Same thing here ~ salmon is not currently a luxury food. Steak is. The price of beans is up. So is wheat. So is corn. So is rice, but if you shop carefully you can nick a buck off here or there.

It's also increasingly clear that today's college grads won't accept "just any job." It has to be their calling, don't you know. It has to be fulfilling. It has to have a certain level of dignity, befitting their station. One suspects that someone with his credentials could get a job, just not the perfect job, the dream job. It might be something "below" him.

But now we make sure no one has to sink to the shameful level of doing a job that isn't one's preferred job. Indeed, we have to maintain them in the style to which they have become accustomed.

Welfare changes people, it really does. I'll never forget when one of my former best friends went on welfare. Her attitude gradually went from "I just want a job, any job," to "I'm not driving 20 miles each way. I'm not giving up my benefits for something that pays less than my previous job. I've got six more months of benefits coming, I'm not doing this, or that, or ..."

NO! Of course he didn’t shoot it! Bite your tongue! He gets it in the organic meat department at Whole Foods where you can get meat that doesn’t come from real animals. Only cartoon animals are used as food. PETA would ban you from their membership list.

54
posted on 11/11/2012 6:33:00 PM PST
by Twinkie
(Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)

I of course mean unearned and unnecessary welfare benefits, and at the rate it's going I'm not counting on SS. I mean that I will never sign up for poverty benefits rather than do anything I can to support myself, and certainly not with blitheness and no sense of shame. Shame is a good thing, it lets you know that you have a working conscience.

No, what I’m saying is that Salon would play up the victim element and make it very clear he lost his job. They aren’t, and that suggests to me that he left it of his own accord and went forth with no plans. He’s fallen gently into the cushy net that once was only to keep the desperate from starving. Now it’s simply another way of living comfortably while you slowly lose your motivation to struggle back onto your feet. Not to mention the woman in this article... grad student in art for pete’s sake... we are becoming a nation of Elois. People trained only for the most delicate and satisfying work (and with palates to match, clearly.) It’s symptomatic of a larger problem, and it’s not just the economy. It’s the attitude.

Definitely the stuff. The welfare folks who shop where I shop pick it up because it meets so many dietary needs for their chillun' that steak just doesn't.

We're trying to get garbanzo beans in the local stores ~ either dried or canned. Although they're about the best buy per pound among legumes, many Americans don't use them, don't know about them, and can't imagine what they are! You can use a bit of curry with butter and you have a major dish.

“All the relevant facts we need to pass judgement on this guy just aren’t there..”

Perhaps not in the article but they are there right in front of our faces. I budget, shop sales, cook what is on sale, and use coupons to feed my family. How many times have I been behind someone with steak, salmon, crab (even out of season) etc... and they pull out their government card. I am paying for them. WE are paying for them while we are the ones who “make do” with what we can afford to purchase. It isn’t some struggling Mom with six kids in hand me down clothes. It’s a woman with professionally done nails, a high dollar hand bag that drives a vehicle way better than the one I do. The concept that an EBT card is for the down in their luck person who is this close to starving is a myth. Sorry but I went food shopping today... and yes, I was behind an obvious illegal alien with an EBT card.

We’re living in an illusion of continued relative prosperity due to EBT cards and the like. It’s hidden. Perhaps soup kit hens and bread lines would have made the election results of the past week unthinkable. But, we’ll never know. What I do know is, public assistance that is generous to the point of comfortable provides a perverse incentive to remain on that assistance for as long as possible, and to seek more of it whenever possible. This is the route to fiscal ruin as anyone who has bothered to take a look can see. We’re practically there, we’re coasting on fumes. Resources actually are limited, they are not bottomless.

What frustrates me are the conservatives who discuss going onto food stamps / SNAP “to bleed the beast”. If you are feeding yourself now, you should not get on the dole out of a misplaced righteousness. You teach your children that entitlements are an entitlement, while eroding your independence. And oppressive states have a depressing tendency to kill the parasites when they grow too numerous. We are not far from free contraceptives to mandatory ones if you are on the dole, or denied medical care if old and on the dole.
If you are Going Galt, don’t get SNAP. Plant a garden instead.

I live in a very urbanized area. I have neighbors who put out traps for songbirds. They catch them, then put them in a cage to drink water for a few days, then they toss them in the soup.

That's subsistence hunting (also against the law). Then there are the 50,000 wild deer in the South of the county ~ we have people who harvest them like you might go out to dig turnips ~ on an as needed basis ~ without firearms.

I see that sort of thing too. People on assistance and they have the iPhones and iPods and are clearly operating at a comfort level above mine. I don’t mind it if they are buying these things themselves, but if they blew all their cash on toys and now “need” my tax money to support them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed, I don’t like it.

The big problem with taking Social Security retirement is being forced onto Medicare, while that is becoming rationed. I’m begging older relatives to work if they can or retire but stay off Social Security and Medicare as long as possible - so that they can still get quality medical care.
Yet I saw an article today on how the elderly on Medicare are perfect for the adjusted, full time reduced to part time jobs. They cannot work full time because they’ll lose too much Social Security, but are cheap for employees because they have Medicare and thus don’t need health insurance. So old people are in the best position - to get both federal money and the remaining part time jobs.

Well the Death Panels serve several vital functions for the Demostate.
They’ll improve the financials of Medicare and Social Security, AND kill off old white Republican voters faster.
Quite a coup on their part.

This is why, post-Election Day, I have determined....We will continue our weekly church contribution, but all extra giving is OVER. I will no longer participate in the “food for the hungry” campaigns. I will no longer purchase Christmas gifts for “the downtrodden.” Food pantry and St. Vincent de Paul donations — done with ‘em. From now on, any and all financial resources we have will go to US and OUR children. No longer will we participate in giving to those who, with 99.9% certainty, vote time and time again for OUR demise, for OUR loss, for the DECLINE of our childrens’ future. So to those with their hands out, looking for pity ... hey, here’s the phone number to your O’Saviorama.... Good luck with that!

79
posted on 11/11/2012 6:58:09 PM PST
by workerbee
(The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1)

What you said plus the fact that the people paying the bills, us, are not shopping at Whole Foods, etc. We are out stocking up on cheap sale items. It seems to me that if they are eating better than the people paying the bills they are receiving way too much.

5 pounds of grits ~ prices all over the place, and there are of course other dried staples with variable prices ~ you really need to know how to shop.

When it comes to dried beans versus canned beans you need to compute shelf life and risk from pests against the marginally higher cost for cooked beans in a can. Some beans don't can well, some are great ~ you can prepare for a hurricane or other disaster with canned beans. We had two 4 foot snowfalls 2 winters in a row. I ate canned beans and sardines every day for a month ~ mostly blind while still recovering from eye surgery since everybody else was in California or somewhere else ~ and I was on my own.

I"d given my eyeteeth for a tortilla ~ so ever since i make sure i've got a 20 pak ~ usually about $1 to $1.50 ~ depending on the store and brand.

In short, you stretch a dollar if the dollar is yours to begin with. I see a lot of luxury items. By that, I don’t mean meat. Luxury is defined as what is high dollar value. I don’t see a lot of “off” brands being purchased as well. It is the name brand items that are way more expensive (for example, Del Monte vs the store brand ESPECIALLY if the store brand is on sale). I don’t like it either especially since I am the one that is s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g every dollar.

It is, in a way ... but really funny will be if he doesn’t get a full set of good grades this semester, and I move two more little brothers into his room, as an obvious hint that he’d be happier on his own. “Golly, did Frank have another accident? Well, you were three once, you know ... and when did you say you were moving out?”

89
posted on 11/11/2012 7:13:33 PM PST
by Tax-chick
("Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up." ~marron)

http://www.fpwmeats.com/products.php ~ this store supposedly regularly has rabbit available ~ they sell wholesale to the restaurant racket. I didn’t find it. however, there’s a site that suggests muskrat is or has been for sale regularly in other Fells point markets.

I agree. If those people had used their EBT cards for flour, rice, pizza sauce, frozen vegetables, canned soups, tuna, chicken legs, pre-made lasagna, bread, peanut butter, sliced ham and bologna, etc. then almost no-one here would begrudge them the aid. Buying foods that are at least apparently luxury foods has an "in-your-face" quality that grates a lot of people here.

It's not dissimilar to using social assistance money for regular belts of "medicinal" booze.

“In your face” quality... yes. It also suggests a real sense of comfort and security that even those of us with jobs don’t have. There’s no indication that they have any sense that they should be careful with this money, make it stretch, yes even unto Ramen. No sense that they have any fear that this money has its limits. If I were on assistance I’d be living on lentils and rice, hoarding every penny, and pretty much shaking with fear about the day it’s gone. Their absolute lack of shame or unease about it suggests that they have no idea what the situation is in this country, and no concern about the future. Yet these are people with advanced degrees... these are the “smart” people... right?

The price of all grains has gone up way beyond historic levels the last 5 years ~ part of this is due to a massive drought in the United States and China ~ check the current extent at: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ Fortunately these things don’t happen all that often ~ maybe every 75 to 80 years.

Yet I saw an article today on how the elderly on Medicare are perfect for the adjusted, full time reduced to part time jobs. They cannot work full time because theyll lose too much Social Security, but are cheap for employees because they have Medicare and thus dont need health insurance. So old people are in the best position - to get both federal money and the remaining part time jobs.

The foot and bike courier industry has similar economics, although on the other end of the age scale. They can pay out low because more than a few of their "independent contractors" are on welfare.

I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, you could rightly say that the owners of those companies are pulling a sharp deal. But on the other hand, those welfare recipients are really working at a real job.

I have several bags of cornflour of different granularity ~ and use it to make my own bread ~ not just tortillas. The deal with the store bought torts is they are about as cheap as I could make them ~ all things considered.

If you put a little bit of crushed pepper in the mix it tastes like a wheat flour product.

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